DESTRUCTION OF MOUSE LYMPHOMA-CELLS WITH HIGH-PRESSURE PULSES GENERATED BY A DIAPHRAGMLESS SHOCK-TUBE

A high pressure pulse, which was produced by a shock tube, was hit repeatedly on a pellet of mouse EL-4 T-lymphoma cells packed in a small test tube which was filled up with culture medium. The pressure pulse measured at the conical bottom of the tube had about 30 mu s width and up to 8.4 MPa height depending on the driver gas pressure of the shock tube. The lymphoma cells began to be destroyed by hitting with 100 pulses having a peak pressure around 3 MPa. The fraction of dead cells in the tube exposed to the shock wave of 100 pulses rose exponentially as the peak pressure was increased from 3 MPa to 8 MPa. The fraction of dead cells at 6.0 MPa of the peak pressure was around 10%. However, proliferative function of the cells survived after exposure to 6.0 MPa-peak-pressure pulses seemed intact because the cells which survived the exposure proliferated as well as the nonexposed control cells.